Marketing in a Digital Era

A new landscape in the world of marketing is appearing now. The strength of a company is defined by its digital web presence and that standing is critical to its profit margin and ultimate survival.

Almost everyone has dabbled in throwing up a web page to promote their business. With the invention and discovery of the internet, I think all of us have considered the latent power of owning web real estate.

Some web pages are extremely well designed. They satisfy the creative eye, are informative and insightful. But do you ever feel like your site is just sitting there in the vast galaxy of time and space going unnoticed? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a little more traffic and create some sales out of it?

I know many of us have had that thought run through our heads.

To generate sales through a website many large and small business owners have discovered various ways to be seen and heard out there. They use search engine marketing such as Pay Per Click or SEO (search engine optimization) to drive traffic to their site. They develop a more user friendly web site by creating a live video feed or interject informative video clips. They gather contact information from the potential customer through a web response form that sends follow-up e-mails with tips or coupons.

The question is do any of these solutions individually work as a complete answer to bringing in sales leads to a site and ultimately generating revenue?

What if the total solution isn’t any one of these? What if the perfect storm of synergistic flow combines ALL elements? How about a pipeline effect that generates sales leading all the way from generating leads, directing the client within the site and then moving them towards a sale?

An idea that I have considered is that a commercial site must not only exist by showing web presence but also live multi-dimensionally and interactively to bring in sales.

Where did I get this idea? Well, I have recently become affiliated with a company that has started to dabble with the concept. The concept has opened my eyes to the whole idea of making existing web sites profitable through not only driving traffic to a site but also informing them while they are there and then taking the extra step to drive the sale home, all as one web marketing package.

What I find fascinating about this idea is the fact that it takes customer relations and product advertising to a level of mutual functionality. The bottom line in this kind of web based marketing system not only works through an integrated turn key system but also works to bring qualified consumer leads to an existing business with a quality product. These leads are not only looking for the product being sold but they already most likely desire to purchase it.

In addition, we have the ability to track traffic statistically to tweak and improve client results.
I’ve known the Motiliti co-CEO, Scott Martin, for years and have watched him accomplish a great amount in the world of digital media, including being a documentary finalist in the Banff Film Festival, being an accomplished musician and running a digital litigation support company for some years. He contributed the idea of a new form of video he named Live On Page TM to the Motiliti business model. His good friend and co-CEO, Joe Schaeffer contributed the online marketing expertise for driving traffic to a site and then gathering information about web visitors through simple voluntary questionnaires. In an unlikely combination, he is a 6th degree Kung Fu black belt, Master of three Shaolin schools, sports a PhD in neurophysiology and has accumulated a vast amount of marketing knowledge.
When I first met with the two of them together to discuss the fledgling business, I noticed almost immediately the synergistic chemistry between the two. They told me about their hatched master business plan for Motiliti Inc. I remembered how we referred to their original warehouse office as "the cave" and chuckled talking all the while about world web domination through their simple integrated step-by-step system.
I knew without a doubt that I would accept their offer to come on as a project manager with the newly formed marketing firm. It was a matter of wanting to be part of something progressive and innovative.
Today we run a staff of about ten including the two CEO’s, myself, a VP of Sales, a VP of IT, an additional computer architect, a CPA, and two production associates. We no longer operate out of "the cave". We run the business now out of a state of the art office brimming with Macs, PCs, DreamWeaver, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and other tools that are always being added to the mix and morphing our outlook on technical possibility.
Equally, our IT team of engineers are constantly updating and improving upon the code that facilitates the inner workings of this process, evolving the way we think about ourselves and the business model
The backbone of this brand of marketing is based on the idea that technology cannot exist in a vacuum. It has to be part of a highly functioning system built to meet the needs of the consumer on a human level. It is an act of combining the best in design technology, IT technology and a knowledgeable cast of characters behind the scenes to direct the traffic flow toward a final sale.
In a time when we are all recession proofing our livelihoods, it’s good to know that there are solutions for making this happen that involve converting qualified leads into actual sales.

So how would you say this plays out for a small business with 1 or 2 people working the business? What’s the best plan of attack for getting an overall marketing solution? Would you work hard on 1 part of the marketing, then move on to the next or is it just a matter of working in small amounts of time on various marketing tasks?